Energy Efficient Artisan Glassmaker

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Catherine Lottes is a successful Milwaukee-based glass designer and artist.

Tell us about your work, and the determination it takes.

My first experience with glass was working as a glasscutter at a small stained-glass studio that created Tiffany reproduction lamps and windows. I fell in love with glass and its intrinsic relationship to light. However, even though I loved the work and wanted to learn as much as possible about glass. After a year, I started my own business painting backdrops for Advertising agencies.

While things with the backdrop business were starting to slow down, I launched a second business working with kiln-fired glass using almost entirely recycled glass from waste resources. Most of the process development and equipment was self-funded from money that I had earned through my first business.  In 2009, I received a large waste reduction and demonstration grant from Wisconsin DNR, which enabled me to purchase a special continuous Belt Furnace designed for the Semi-conductor Industry. I used it to develop an energy efficient process to create beautiful & unique Artisan glass tiles from industrial waste glass (mirrors and oven glass) and regular window glass. I completed the grant research successfully and began taking on a variety of site-specific public art projects and more private custom commissions, through clients like Kopp’s Custard, Elsa’s and AZ88 (all owned by Karl Kopp).

How do you find your clients?

Mostly through word of mouth, but a number of my clients have found me through somewhat mysterious methods … They often tell me that I am “the best kept secret” once we finally connect. I have also received some projects through competitive requests for proposals, which independent artists must apply for.

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How did inspiration for the Kopps Burger and Custard stand come about?

Working with Karl is always interesting and challenging. I see it as creative problem solving, because he usually gives me a unique situation and setting and says, open-endedly: “What can you do with this?”

I did the original design for the Meditation Garden at Kopp’s on S. 76th and Layton Ave in 2011. In early 2020, they approached me again with a new creative problem: He had two unique CNC carved pieces of black granite that were left over from a building facade for a place he owns in New York. They wanted me to make a new sculpture with them to be installed inside the Meditation Garden. I usually start by thinking about the materials and their properties and capabilities.

Although Karl loves glass, he wants the final piece be unique and eye catching, but also easy on the pocketbook. I still had crates full of reject big screen TV mirrors (from my R&D work), which I had also used to make mirror mosaics for a restroom at his AZ88 restaurant in Scottsdale back in 2014. I immediately thought of lining the unfinished inside of the carved granite pieces with mirror mosaics and setting them on concrete bases like a clam opening up.

The various angles of the granite would create an echo / infinity chamber of reflections bouncing back & forth & changing constantly in the light. But it needed a “magical” focal element as well, so I decided to insert a central column of glass block and attach color shifting dichroic art glass like a shimmering, constantly changing monolith that will also reflect color into the adjacent mirrors. So, the environmentally reactive concept is more visual and experiential—possibly evoking something spiritual, rather than just “formalistic”. 

What keeps you motivated?

The unknown. I have always been a visual thinker; therefore, I have more affinity towards the language of art, which is a universal language, independent of words. One can attempt to translate a painting, photograph or sculpture into words, but they fall short and sometimes change the meaning—for good or bad—because meaning is often based on idiosyncratic personal experience. One of my favorite artists is Rothko, a master of the ineffable and enigmatic. He once said: “Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take risks,”

What advice can you offer other designers and creatives?

 Be true to yourself—even if no one understands or “gets” what you are doing. Don’t be afraid to push yourself beyond self-imposed limits, even if it might feel like you have failed to achieve your goals. Don’t give up, because you will no doubt discover something that no one else can do the same way. Achieving recognition in the art world can take a lifetime, and many artists are only discovered posthumously. Do what you love.